Address: | 5247 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL 60625, USA |
Phone: | +1 773-334-1589 |
Site: | sansoogabsan.com |
Rating: | 3.6 |
Working: | 11AM–1AM 11AM–1AM 11AM–1AM 11AM–1AM 11AM–2AM 11AM–2AM 11AM–1AM |
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Angelica Bermudez
This restaurant will never get more than 4 stars because the service (and the parking lot) SUCKS!!! If youre a veteran customer of 10+ years like myself, then you know this is the norm. Just park down one of the side streets and walk the 50 feet. I love Korean BBQ b/c its a great time for social groups, cooking it to my own personal preference, and I love meat! It can get pricey, anywhere between $25-$50 per person (depending if youre boozing or not). FOOD: They give you about 20 small dishes filled with snacks. The potato salad is good, kimchi is my fave, and soybeans are always good for you! For appetizers, the seafood pancake is always a big hit amongst our group of friends. The mandoo (dumplings) are pretty good too. They come out crispy with a sweet dipping sauce (yummy!). I *ALWAYS* order the bulkoki (finely sliced marinated beef) and kalbi (thicker cuts of beef- they give you the bones to clean the grill). Those are my two staples here at San Soo. I have also had their spicy chicken, which is OK... Ive also had their bacon that comes with an oil and seasoned dipping sauce. I only order this when Im int he mood for it. Be careful when frying this, it can splash!! NOTE: You only get 1 rice bowl and 1 soup bowl PER ENTREE. Additional rice/soups must be charged for. DRINKS: I dont ever drink ANYTHING here. Why? Because soju is only $6 a bottle at H-Mart, yet they charge $14. No pop, no tea, just water please. Id rather save room for FOOD! The bus boys are pretty attentive, they change the wood when necessary, they change the grill when it gets too cakey, they bring additional lettuce leaves and bean sauce when asked politely. I saw them more than I saw our own server (this was on Sunday evening). I work as a server at Solder Field during Bears games and I have to haul @$$! The management should know, if youre THAT busy- youre under staffed. OR they simply dont care... not sure, what it is?!?! Be warned that it can get smokey in the restaurant during the busy weekends and you may reek of the smokey scent when you leave, but the beef is phenomenal. Thats the ONLY reason I keep coming back. I organized a 30 person birthday dinner and they were very accomodating. I try to keep this place for special occasions, such as completing my 2nd marathon. My legs mightve been sore, but my arms had no problem lifting those chopsticks! =)
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Michael Wang
Wow. I was actually pretty damn surprised to find some legit Korean BBQ in Chicago. On another business trip to Chicago, one of my friends decided to take me out to get some decent food out of the Loop. Thank god because in general, the food in the Loop is pretty mediocre at best. A 20 minute drive later, we ended up at San Soo Gab San. This place, to me, is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Then again, Im not a local, but there didnt seem to be much around the area. At 6pm, this place is pretty empty, so its actually the perfect time to stop by here for dinner. The restaurant is pretty much laid out like any other Korean BBQ-esque restaurant. With your grill in the middle, locked, loaded and ready to get cracking with the meat. For dinner, my friend and I decided to order the seafood pancake and two orders of the kalbi. Of course, no Korean BBQ would be complete without a couple bottles of beer. Trust me when I say that this is plenty enough for two people. What makes it even more crazy is the fact that you literally get 20 different kinds of banchan to start you off. Even in LA, you dont get 20 different kinds of things to snack on. When the kalbi showed up, it was nice and marbled. The meat was nicely sliced, and not too thin that it cooks too quick. The marinade wasnt overly sweet, and was actually one of the better kabli that Ive had in my lifetime. With two orders, I think we got about 15 or so pieces each, which was more than enough. As far as the seafood pancake is concerned, it was pretty good, but I might be able to do without it next time. The pancake itself came pretty stacked with many octopus chunks, but it just seemed a little on the bland side, especially without the sauce. In total, with the two orders of kalbi, seafood pancake, and two 24oz of beer, the bill came out to be just over $75. Not the cheapest I suppose, but the meat was straight quality. Overall, service here was pretty solid. It probably helped considering there were only 3 occupied tables in total, but that only works in my favor. The BBQ here is solid, and the vast amounts of banchan that they set you up here with is mind boggling. San Soo Gab San is definitely a legitimate Korean restaurant in Chicago, and its definitely gained a fan.
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daven feng
The food was decent but the service was TERRIBLE. Not coming here again. When we sat down, the waitress who poured the cups of water almost spilled it on my phone, which was in my hand. The same waitress threw the menus (which was not enough menus for all of us at the table) at the edge of the table and walked off. Then when our food came, she leaves it at the same far edge of the table without saying anything, and walks off. When she came back around, she dumps our entire dish onto the grill. We planned to grill the food slowly, so that it would be freshly cooked and hot when we eat it, but this waitress comes around and dumps the whole plate onto the grill. It feels like it defeats the purpose of having a grill in front of you, since you arent the one grilling your own food. This happened again, with the third dish. The second dish was placed onto the grill by a waiter who came by and asked us if we wanted him to put the marinated beef onto the grill. After we went to the washroom, we paid and left a tip. We felt that the amount was suitable for the quality of service that we received there, knowing it was below 15%. If it was just me, I would not have left a tip at the table at all. I would have called the waiter over, tip him personally, and walk off. But this did not happen as the others felt bad for not leaving a tip. As we were leaving, the waitress stopped us and did not let us leave because we did not pay 15% tip. Tips arent required by law, and we felt that the amount we left on the table was suitable, yet she demands that we paid the "full" tip. I was about to take the tip from her, tip the waiter double that amount, and then leave, but I could not find him at a moments notice. The others didnt want to make a scene, so we just paid the rest and left. She did not even say thank you and treated us as if we were caught scamming her out of her "hard earned" money.
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A Private User
Make sure you order the b-b-q (priced higher than regular menu items) or youll be treated horribly. I went with 6 other friends because we wanted to eat Korean food. When we began ordering, the waitress made a smart comment " why do you come to a b-b-q place and not order b-b-q". We decieded to ignore this rude comment and continue ordering. After she took the 2nd order she made another smart comment " you should all discuss what you want to eat and order the same thing otherwise if you all order 7 different things it will take over an hour. Cant you see how busy we are here"?. I was in shock and disbelief at her rudeness and told her that its ok if it takes over an hour for our food we would like to order what we want to eat. After about 45 minutes of waiting for our food we decided to order some beer. She bought the beer over with 2 glasses knowing well that we had 7 people at our table. When we asked for more glasses she never came back so my friend went behind the counter to get the glasses himself. Sure enough it took about an hour for our food to come out, which was no problem since the waitress informed us when she snapped at us when we ordered our food. While eating we realized we ran out of the potato salad side dish and asked for more. Surpise, surprise... she looks at us and says "this side dish only comes with the b-b-q dinner but I gave it to you guys anyways. Dont you think it is rude to ask for more when you didnt even order the b-b-q?" WTF!!! If you want good food with HORRIBLE service please visit this place.